Prodigy isn’t the most popular of rappers to champion these days but I’ll always ride by the Mobb Deep stalwart. Return of the Mac is still one of my favorite rap albums of the last decade and what Bandana P’s flow lost in nimbleness, it gained in weary gravitas, sinking into the smoked out paranoia of the Mobb’s better material. Missteps are inevitable, like so many other rappers of their generation, the Mobb saw their more commercial peers blow up all around them and never quite got over that, but at his rawest Prodigy may be QB’s last thun standing: Nas is too erratic, Mega to wizened, Tragedy too locked up and Nore’s from Lefrak. Water Boarding reunites Hav & P with ROTM partner and Mobb affiliate Alchemist and their chemistry is palpable – as much as I enjoy Gangrene records, there’s nothing quite like hearing Alchemist and the Mobb try to out-dark each other. Not one hundred on that hook, but it’s a post A$AP world and we’re all just living in it.